Four Britons feared dead in safari air crash

A multimillionaire British businessman and his family are missing, presumed dead, after their plane crashed during a safari in Tanzania. Alan Williams, his wife Sue, sister-in-law Jill Williams and Debbie Winn, a family friend, have not been seen since Sunday afternoon, when they boarded a small plane to fly from Lake Tanganyika to a remote game reserve.

The party, from Cumbria, had been staying at the exclusive Greystoke camp, a tented complex on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika, near the Mahale mountains. They were planning to travel to Katavi national park, a reserve which hosts only a few dozen visitors each year.

The Foreign Office said last night that the four Britons were missing, believed dead, along with the Canadian pilot of the Cessna C206 plane.

Although the charred remains of two people were recovered by local police officers, park rangers and villagers combing the area, the wreckage of the Cessna has yet to be found.

"They are searching for the crash site," said Boniface Mgogolwa, the commander of Kigoma regional police. "No one knows how the plane crashed. The main problem facing the operation is the lack of communications. It is a national park, full of dense forests and hills."

Inspectors from the Tanzanian civil aviation authority were on their way to the area to investigate, Mr Mgogolwa added.

Mark Holdsworth, the managing director of Nomad, the company that organised the safari tour, said the Cessna had taken off from the Mahale airstrip on Sunday afternoon.

"Contact was lost soon after takeoff and the aircraft failed to arrive at its destination. A search was instigated, using four aircraft, and a possible crash site was identified from the air. The site is remote and the terrain very rugged, making access on foot extremely difficult."

Mr Williams, 59, from Blawith in Cumbria, became a multimillionaire four years ago when he sold his candle-manufacturing firm, Colony Candles.

He started the small family business in his garage 25 years ago and built it up with the help of his wife and sister-in-law. Sue Williams - who would have been 60 yesterday - worked as marketing director and Jill Williams was finance director until 2001 when the business was sold to Blythe Inc. The company, which is based in Lindal in Furness, now has a turnover of £20m.

Louise McMahon, the general manager of Colony Candles, said yesterday: "I have worked with the Williams family for 20 years and Colony would not have existed without their entrepreneurial spirit. They were an inspiration to work with and I owe my career success to them.

"I am shocked and stunned that their lives have been taken in this terrible tragedy," Ms McMahon said.